Trusts remain a valuable estate planning and asset protection tool, but they also carry ongoing compliance obligations. Many trustees assume that a dormant trust with no income, assets, or activity can simply be left alone. SARS has made it clear that inactivity does not remove a trust’s compliance obligations. With penalties now being imposed for...Read More

Your top employee resigns and immediately opens up a new business in direct opposition to you. Using your software, your client relationships and your business methods to springboard their new start-up and poach your clients. We discuss, in the context of a recent High Court case, how our law can help you put a stop...Read More

A dementia diagnosis affects far more than memory. As mental capacity declines, families are often confronted with difficult legal and financial decisions. Many are surprised to learn that a Power of Attorney may no longer be valid. Understanding the alternatives can help protect a loved one’s affairs before a crisis develops. Read on for the...Read More

A tenant may be in clear breach of a lease, but that does not guarantee a successful eviction. A recent High Court judgment shows how an unclear cancellation notice and a failure to follow the correct legal process can derail an otherwise strong case, leaving landlords with an expensive lesson in the importance of getting...Read More

Couples who sign antenuptial contracts often believe they have permanently settled the question of money in their marriage. What is mine stays mine. What is yours stays yours. Not so fast. The Constitutional Court recently expanded access to redistribution orders for spouses married out of community of property without accrual, particularly where strict enforcement of...Read More

Most buyers treat a deposit as a show of good faith. The law treats it very differently. When a sale collapses because of a buyer’s breach, that deposit may be lost entirely. The Conventional Penalties Act offers limited relief, but the threshold for court intervention is high. A recent case, in which the buyer lost...Read More

We all know that a comprehensive estate plan, with a carefully crafted will at its heart, is essential to ensure that we’re on track to leave our loved ones financially secure. And that of course requires us to quantify not only our assets, but also the costs that our estate will have to pay out...Read More

A deck collapsed seven months after transfer. The buyers, convinced they’d been sold a raw prawn, headed to the courts. Eight claims and twelve years later, they haven’t recouped a cent. A 2026 Western Cape High Court judgment draws a sharp line between what the law protects buyers against and what it does not. “The...Read More

Think a disclaimer will protect your business from liability? Not so fast. Our courts have made it clear that a disclaimer is only enforceable where consent is properly obtained, risks are clearly disclosed, and the wording is specific enough to cover the conduct in question. These principles matter for businesses operating in high-risk environments, and...Read More

Before you make a loan to anyone, be sure to comply fully with the strict requirements of the National Credit Act. If you don’t, you could lose your loan entirely, with a recent High Court decision providing a stark reminder of the consequences. The Court declared a R430,000 loan to have been “reckless lending”, leaving...Read More